The sad story of the AWA. (2 parts)

[SUPERECWFAN1]

I'm watching this show on ESPN Classics and it airs every night at 12am. Its the AWA on ESPN. Yep...that ESPN. They the network that has all these serious sport shows and NFL , MLB and Sportscenter actually aired Pro Wrestling. Well they actually aired it three times in their history and all 3 times left em burned to never wanna televise another wrestling product.

Anyhow this is the AWA. The American Wrestling Assocation for you wanting the full name. And its start happened in the 1960's. And to describe the situation for you Non-Wrestling fans (Like Gail , and others) wrestling then was a territory system.

Territories were sections of the country that each promoter had. Well the NWA was the 1st big promotion and Lou Thez would travel and wrestle each promoters 1# challenger for the title. Vince McMahon's father (Vince Sr.) ran the Northeast and MSG. The Crocketts ran the south , Eddie Graham ran Florida....and so on...and so on.

Anyhow Verne Gagne was an impressive NCAA amatuer wrestler and had passed up a NFL career to be a Pro Wrestler. The NWA seeing as how they really didn't want Lou Thez to drop the belt to Gagne , even though the man was massively over in the Mid-West like Chicago etc etc . So Gange went into partners with Wally Karbo and a few others....and started the AWA.

Gagne since he ran the promotion and was marquee attraction became the AWA World Champion. So all thru the 1960's the AWA was carried by Verne . It was his baby of course...




And Verne headed into the 1970's with a loyal cast of wrestlers like "Dick the Bruiser"," Baron Von Rachse" , "The Crusher" and "Nick Bockwinkel". Gagne as the owner held the belt 10 times ...and one title reign lasted over 7 years ! (1968-1975)

Anyhow the 1970's saw many stars come into promotion like Jessie Ventura , Bobby Heenan , and numerous others. The AWA's star rose as more cities picked it up syndication wise and stretched to the pacific nearly in terms of how many watched.

Verne also trained wrestlers and made a hefty fee at one point (according to Ric Flair , Gagne would take money outta your contract for years !) . He helped train men like Flair , Ricky Steamboat and Curt Henning.

And business got even more better when this man walked in the door in 1982.





Hulk Hogan had taken a few years to find himself as a star and had recently done Rocky III . He had tried the wrestling thing for Vince Sr. and it wasn't working out for him. So he gave it one last try and he remembered meeting David Gagne (Verne's son) years earlier and David suggested his dad give Hulk a shot.

The idea for Hulk was to make him a heel. In fact Hogan was gonna become the #1 or #2 heel in the company. But the moment Hulk Hogan walked out on TV the fans went GaGa for the man. The AWA fans who had seen pretty much chubby and overwieght men for years ...had Hulk Hogan ...who looked like he could beat everyone.

And the AWA followed that as Hogan created HULKAMANIA in the AWA. In no time Hulk Hogan became the most POPULAR guy in the company ! The fans wanted....no THEY DEMANDED he get the AWA World title .

By this point Verne himself had gottten old . He had been wrestling nearly 30 years and he really had no business to keep going but you'll notice a trend with old wrestlers , posters of YABS ...they love the business too much to walk away. Anyhow Verne had gotten old...and he only had 1 good business partner he could trust being AWA World Champion now.

Nick Bockwinkel.

Nick and Verne were friends and business partners and Verne liked that Bockwinkel wrestled his style of classic wrestling as well. So not only was the title protected (it was the company's bread & butter) by Bockwinkel being champion and close to Verne , he also had his style of Champion.

Not that Verne didn't want Hulk Hogan as AWA World Champion to carry his company. He just wanted added protection according to Hogan. And that was Verne trying to hook his daughter up with Hogan. Which Hulk shot down ....and when that didn't work the day of the last title shot (and biggest drawing card ever for the AWA ....Hogan was THAT HUGE A DRAW !) he demanded Hogan's Japanese tour money.

Hogan refused and Verne being an idiot reacted by not putting the belt on this hot young draw. The match wasn't anything special but soon enough at the end ...Hogan nailed Bockwinkel ...the fans watched as the referee counted...1....2.....3 and they ERUPTED. They went crazy as Hogan won ...but wait ....out came the usual swerve and Bockwinkel was the champ yet again.

To say fans were pissed is an understatement. There was a near riot. Bockwinkel had to run for his life and this was Verne's start of his downfall. He had lost such touch in the business he lost the golden goose that was Hulkamania....

END OF PART #1 ....Part #2 coming.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

In 1983 changes were happening to the scene and landscape of Pro Wrestling. Vince Sr. was dying and he basically sold out to his son (Vince McMahon...no junior ok) . Vince was in the mood to make some big shit happen and he didn't care for the territory system his dad was ok with. Vinnie Mac wanted to go global.

Soon enough Vince started flexing his muscle ,,,he bought the top stars from other promoters territories , he bought other promoters out. And he even in 1983 made Verne Gagne an offer "Sell me the AWA."

Now the story has became an urban legend. One book claims Verne thought this young cocky McMahon was full of hot air. Buy him out ? He was Verne Gagne and ran a hot fucking promotion ! On the WWE AWA DVD , Verne claims Vince offered it and said he'd have to meet with Wally Karbo and other investors into the company.

Word gets to McMahon though that 1 star of Verne's isn't happy. And its Hulk Hogan. Vince meets privately and soon enough lures him away. Given a chance to carry the WWF , Hogan jumped since the AWA and Verne would never give him the belt and beat Bockwinkel.

Soon enough every star that Verne had was in awe as Hogan left and went on to mega success with Vince McMahon. The floodgates poured as Verne lost Jessie Ventura , Adonis , Gene Okerland (his key annoucer) and Bobby Heenan within a year.

The talent raids didn't get better. Everytime the AWA built a new star or stars , Vince McMahon was waiting. Verne saw a promising star in Rick Martel who he put the AWA World title on , but as some have said (Jim Ross) it may have been too soon in Martel's career. After a 2 year run , Martel left for the WWF.

Then Verne commited his next BIG MISTAKE. He put the AWA World title on Stan Hanson. Ok , Hanson is a great heel and had that crazy Texas wildman act. But Hanson was already commited to Japan and Baba (All Japan Pro Wrestling). I mean lets put it this way.... Baba was paying Hanson the type of salary someone gets from the Yankees . Verne couldn't touch it but soon enough Verne did his dumb move and made him AWA World Champion.

Then the AWA found out when Verne saw Hanson NO SHOW cards in America. Again ...who gets the loyalty ? The man paying you Yankees money or the guy paying you chump change ? Hanson after weeks/months of defending the AWA belt in Japan was finally stripped of the belt.

This had made the company look foolish and weakened the belt to the fanbase. And Verne handed it back to his business partner Bockwinkel who by 1986 was getting old. Ohhh and funny story about Hanson....when Verne stripped him and Hanson was ordered to send the AWA World title back and stop refering himself as Champion he got PISSED. So he took the belt and drove over it with his pickup and mailed it back !

The next young kid Verne had built was a pretty smart choice. Even though he was the son of a close friend ...Curt Henning had "It".
He was someone that good...



Anyhow Curt was ready...and got the push to be AWA World Champion. And it likely could have been someone who could have likely saved the AWA and the business. But Vince saw him too and within a year he too was signed away.

Now by this point there was really not anyone who could carry the AWA World title. So in his 2nd attempt , Verne went outside again and got Jerry Lawler. Lawler's CWA was a decent indie and soon the talks spread that Verne's AWA , Fritz Von Erich's WCCW , and Lawler's CWA would all form one big promotion and fight Vince McMahon.

And the merger would happen on PPV December 1988.....


(PART 3 COMING OK...SORRY SUCH A LONG ARTICLE.)

[SUPERECWFAN1]

The indie promotions by this point needed help so Fritz Von Erich's "World Class Championship Wrestling" from the Texas area and Lawler's "Continetal Wrestling Assocation" from Mephis would merge with the AWA and unite to face Vinnie Mac !

Anyhow great scheme....but the fact was they all couldn't agree on what type of coffee to drink let alone who should carry the WORLD TITLE they would soon create. Fritz pushed his son Kerry Von Erich ...but the others like Jerry Jarrett and Verne not so.

So the decision was a silly one. Kerry would do a blad job (cutting himself open) and the referee would award the title to Lawler due to the blood loss. Well the fact was Kerry soon cut himself too deep and then cut his forearm on one of the ropes ! Just a horrible bloody match as Lawler joked he had to close his eyes as Kerry's blood dripped all over him. Lawler won the belt and unified the belts.

This was at the SUPERCLASH III PPV event. Now came the sad news....the PPV Buys for this was so low , Verne fucked everyone over and protected his AWA. He didn't pay anyone and soon enough he had the fucking balls to hand Lawler a booking sheet and requested he do the selected dates.

Lawler had the AWA World title and demanded his money for the SUPERCLASH III PPV. When Verne wouldn't come forward with it , Lawler kept the belt and said FUCK YOU to Gange. Now this was the point of no return. The AWA had seen 2 men stripped of the belt and Lawler went off and formed the USWA outta the CWA and Fritz's WCCW.

Verne was in freefall now. The AWA was limping as the talent raids had taken numerous wrestlers away like Henning , Martel , Shawn Michaels , Marty Jannety , Pat Tanaka , etc etc. Crowds for shows was weakening and where once Chicago to film TV offered good pay days , those days were no more.

Verne had no choice , he needed someone he could trust and he went with Larry Zbyszko. Who just happened to be married to one of his daughters. There was nothing wrong with Zbyszko. But in the era of Hulk Hogan's and Ric Flair's he was a symbol of an out of touch AWA.

Larry had ok mic skills and he tried. But by this point the AWA was so weakened and all of Verne's friends had gotten old the company finally in 1990 to handle the loss of talents on a weekly basis (Verne couldn't stop stars from jumping ...since the company was near broke) one of the guys backstage (Greg Gagne) came up with the Team Challenge Series.

Matches would happen , guys would get a point for the teams . Most of the matches were gimmick matches (which was so Un-AWA) and by the end in a small studio , as Verne's AWA was dying ..perennial jobber Jake "The Milkman" Milliman git up a pole and retrieved a turkey to get the win. And that was the end of the AWA.

That December of 1990 , Larry Zbyszko left for WCW to work. Verne stripped him of the AWA World Title. In Jan 1991 , the AWA went out of business. The end had came after 30 years and what 5-6 years earlier was some of the best business the company had done.

Many claim Verne should have let Greg take control and make more decisions. That Verne's own stub born behavior put the AWA in this position. Had he kept Hogan....

But the end came as Verne's own actions came back to haunt him. He had taken the money from SUPERCLASH III , he had horrible ethics it seemed in training people , and then as Hogan has claimed sold merchindice of his and pocketed the money. Instant karma happens...

The true story of the AWA is that it was a good company at one time. If you can forget that horrible 1989-1990 period on ESPN you see now. This was a promotion that launched careers and had tons of talent pass thru.

In the end the AWA died....but its Legacy will always live on as DVD's and WWE 24/7 is there to show it.



COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS ARE WELCOME.

[DungeonmasterJim]

I remembering going to my local WWF show in the early 1980s and seeing Eddie Gilbert and Curt Henning as jobbers. Eddie got a bit of a push as then champ Bob Backlund's sort of protege. Curt sort of just seem to disappear and apparently started making a name later in the AWA.

I also found some old matches of Hogan versus then champ Backlund in Hogan's first tour with the WWF as a heel on Youtube. The match was fairly boring as Hogan just seemed to bear hug Backlund every two seconds. It was a house show so maybe they just wanted to get it over with.

DM JIm

[THEDOC]

Great Article ECW, I guess you didn't want to delve into how the AWA and WWE were both part of the NWA (National Wrestling Alliance) and that it was disagreements with a chosen Wold Heavyweight Champion at different times that made them break away and start their own organizations.
I noticed you don't mention the rumor where Verne called The Iron Sheik on the week of the match between The Shiek and Hogan and have The Sheik break Hogan's leg as The Sheik was a friend of Verne's but The Sheik said no as he was loyal to Vince.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Great Article ECW, I guess you didn't want to delve into how the AWA and WWE were both part of the NWA (National Wrestling Alliance) and that it was disagreements with a chosen Wold Heavyweight Champion at different times that made them break away and start their own organizations.
I noticed you don't mention the rumor where Verne called The Iron Sheik on the week of the match between The Shiek and Hogan and have The Sheik break Hogan's leg as The Sheik was a friend of Verne's but The Sheik said no as he was loyal to Vince.

Yeah I tried to really give a couple quick statements on why the Promoters that way broke away from the NWA. And get to the main thing.

Also I really didn't wanna do rumors or not concerning Hulk Hogan. A lot of them are bullshit he creates. Plus that was more a WWF thing and this was sticking to the AWA basically.

[Lester C.]

Super can you do a thread like this but for WCW so more people can post as AWA was before all of our time including yours.

[Hurricane]

Super can you do a thread like this but for WCW so more people can post as AWA was before all of our time including yours.

WCW... lol

[Weetomuncher]

From what I've seem and heard about the AWA, they seemed to be stuck in a nostalgic mood and constantly rolled out old ideas and wrestlers instead of embracing the showbusiness style that WWE and later WCW would find success with.

Breaking with NWA was beneficial to WWE and WCW but AWA was too similar in style to the old NWA to be anything other than a weaker copy.

Most of the top talent in AWA were either on their way up to the big promotions or on the slippery slope to retirement and obscurity.

Verne Gagne is not a very diplomatic man. If a wrestler wasn't on his side he would be pushed right out the door even if Verne would lose out on a massive cash cow.

Guys like Vince and Ted could work with talent they didn't like if they were bringing in big bucks but Verne would let anyone go who didn't kiss his wrinkly old ass and put him over for his 96th title win.

In the end, Verne Gagne screwed Verne Gagne.

[GozertheGozarian]

Super can you do a thread like this but for WCW so more people can post as AWA was before all of our time including yours.

I remember watching first run episodes growing up. The good stuff, not team challenge.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

From what I've seem and heard about the AWA, they seemed to be stuck in a nostalgic mood and constantly rolled out old ideas and wrestlers instead of embracing the showbusiness style that WWE and later WCW would find success with.

Breaking with NWA was beneficial to WWE and WCW but AWA was too similar in style to the old NWA to be anything other than a weaker copy.

Most of the top talent in AWA were either on their way up to the big promotions or on the slippery slope to retirement and obscurity.

Verne Gagne is not a very diplomatic man. If a wrestler wasn't on his side he would be pushed right out the door even if Verne would lose out on a massive cash cow.

Guys like Vince and Ted could work with talent they didn't like if they were bringing in big bucks but Verne would let anyone go who didn't kiss his wrinkly old ass and put him over for his 96th title win.

In the end, Verne Gagne screwed Verne Gagne.

Well for years the AWA , NWA,WCCW and WWWF (yes 3 W's lol) co-existed in a territory system. Verne's TV production at that time was pretty good in the time it was around. And his stars were great draws in the type of territory that Verne and the AWA was in. That Mid-Western part of America where guys drank beer and all.

Its just as time passed , Verne didn't. By the early to mid 80's once McMahon came around and Vince hired many of Verne's TV production people away. And as that WWE: AWA DVD explains that working for Vince McMahon gave them a bigger studio and better stuff to do that with.

Verne wouldn't and the cable expanion for Verne happened too late as well. USA Network and TBS were giving the NWA and WWF great coverage. ESPN was still in its growing stages by 1986 and the show would be bumped and moved around the schedule .

Plus factor in all of Verne's buddies and drawing cards got old and many had to retire and Verne replaced them with new guys who weren't over. And as Vince McMahon had cartoonish elements Verne made his next big mistake...he thought he needed that. Soon after he created a tag team of Lumberjacks , a state trooper character , Russians , ninjas etc etc.

By the late 80's the writing was on the wall. Even if he did create a new star that got over , Verne couldn't keep them. And those 2 year contracts he floated around were a joke as Sherri Martel mocked.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Super can you do a thread like this but for WCW so more people can post as AWA was before all of our time including yours.

Yeah once the AWA thread dies down I'll post it. That way the YABS board doesn't get jammed with countless wrestling threads.